Where and When

Where are you going?

The plan is to cycle through America, from the North of Alaska to the South of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Note that America is not the same as the USA. We want to see America and the USA is one country on these two continents.

Straight down?

Well, straight down is impossible, you would hit water already in Alaska, but even in a straight line is not possible. The fastest route would be more or less straight to Panama, fly or sail to Colombia, then down the west coast of South America, over the PanAmericana.

So how far is that, 16.000km, about 10,000 miles?

It might be if you could go straight down. We think we will have cycled at least double that distance (about 35000km) as we want to visit every country on the mainland, so including all the small countries on Central America and all the larger countries in South America.

We will not cycle every day, we will take longer rests in interesting places, so our average will likely be around 50km/day or even less.

How long will this trip take?

We think about 2.5 years, give or take a few months.

Why 2.5 years, why not 2 or 3 years?

We have to start in Alaskan summer, so July (June is considered Spring, August Fall, the rest is winter in Alaska). As the Southern hemisphere has reversed seasons and we want to arrive in summer as well, we need either 1.5, 2.5 or 3.5 years. 1.5 is too fast, 3.5 a bit slow…

In Tibet. She was cycling from Malaysia to India, I was climbing Mt Everest. We got engaged two years later on the summit of Kilimanjaro, 3 weeks before the start of this cycle trip.

Tibet? Kilimanjaro? Eh, ok. So you like travelling. Where else have you cycled before?

Ivana has made one very long trip: first around New Zealand, then from Malaysia to India, passing Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, China, Tibet & Nepal on the way. Then she cycled for a month in Turkey and has also cycled in France.

Together we cycled in Italy for a month.

I (Harry) was raised in the Netherlands, so was practically born and raised on bicycles. Previously I have not made any very long cycle trips, but have done some shorter touring of 2-3 weeks per trip (Belgium – Normandy – Jersey -England; Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland – Scotland; Amsterdam – Zermatt on a tandem).

What bicycles do you use?

We ride on the perfect travel bike: Dutch made to order Santos Travel master, aluminium frame, 26″ wheels. Tubus racks and Ortlieb bags see for more details the gear pages.

Website:

How does this website work?

well you found the FAQ, so you seem to have some idea already. On the homepage you see 4 tabs with a photo and shortcuts to the last 4 posts.

You can check older trip reports in may ways: check archives, trip reports, search for words, browse by categories (the second/lower top menu) or use the tags system, which is a bit more detailed than the categories.

You can contact us through the contact form and we love feedback on our posts, so please leave some comments when you read the posts. You will be asked to verify that you are a human being (and not a spam robot) by typing some random code. Though this might be difficult and annoying, it saves us hours of time and helps to control spam.

Will you write reports every day?

We will try but already know that it will not be possible as we will be too tired, to grumpy, too out of battery power, or too far away from any internet connection. So likely we will write in batches, whenever we have a few hours or day off and post them when needed.

So do I need to check every day to see if you updated something?

No, you can make it much easier to follow us: either add our RSS feed to your feed reader, so you get a notice when a new feed is available

If you have no idea what RSS is, just subscribe to our mailinglist and get a maximum of one email every day new updates are posted. You can do this on every page, see the box at the right side, near the top of the page or just click here.

World On A Bike .com is just easier to remember and to tell people. It automatically forwards to the real website which is located at harry.biketravellers.com. On http://BikeTravellers.com everybody that cycles can open a free weblog (yourname.biketravellers.com), try it yourself, many others have already done so.

Do not forget that our penguin friend Pablito is also joining us and he makes his own reports as well, sometimes in English, mostly in Spanish, check out his website here: http://Pablito.biketravellers.com

What are those ‘Google Ads’ I see on many pages?

These are small advertisements, supplied by Google. We do not choose them, the content is based on the content of the page, so a page about Alaska will give you ads about Alaska tours or land. It might show things we do not support, like drilling for oil in Alaska.

Every time somebody clicks on them, we get a few cents, which helps to pay for our website costs. So if you are interested in the ads, please check tem out as you are helping us.

Do not just click a lot of ads just to help us, as Google might ban our account if some people repeatedly click our ads from the same computer/IP address. So only check the ones that are interesting to you.

How & costs & support

How can you afford such a trip?

We spend much less than you think, we saved some money the past years and might make some more on the way.

So, how much will you spend?

North America will be the most expensive: until we reach Mexico, we will spend about $15 per day (together). This means less than $3000 in the first 6 months.

Then from Mexico down it will probable be less than half of that.

In total should be less than $10,000 together for the entire trip.

That is less than my parents spent on a luxury 2-week safari trip last year! How come you can live so cheap?

We do not need much. We have our tent, so we do not need to pay for hotels. We camp out in the wild or at people’s lawn’s, so do not pay for expensive campsites. We will stay in cheap hostels in cities -in central America, you can get these for a few dollars-, but will also do a lot of Couchsurfing/Hospitality clubbing/ WarmShowering: staying with people for free, in return we will host them later.

We cook ourselves, so all we need is some pasta, some veggies and some candy bars to get us through the day. We drink water we get from people or take it from streams and purify it with our Steripen. We recharge our batteries using our SolarSupra solar panel. We never buy bottled water, that is a waste of money and plastic.

We do not have an expensive taste and have no space for souvenirs on our bikes, so all we take home are pictures and memories.

Our sponsors supplied us with most of our gear, so we had little costs up front.

It is still a lot of money, don’t you have any other costs as well?

We do not have kids, we do not have a car and have no debts, we never bought and will not buy anything we cannot afford. We have a house, but that is rented out so almost pays for itself.

So things we need to pay are: food & drinks. Sometimes camping fees (mostly we camp in the wild or on people’s lawns); Internet connections along the way, spare parts for our bikes; replacements for clothes we wore out; park fees; visa fees; entry fees for places we want to visit etc.

It is hard to plan exactly how much we will spend, but we want to see things along the way and will buy some dinners or breakfasts along the way when we are too tired or lazy to cook or think we deserved it after cycling another 1000km or a tough day. Basically we are on a tight budget, but will not let this stop us from enjoying the places we visit.

Is there any way we can support your trip?

Yes! Many ways, first of all you can sign up for our newsletter or RSS feed. Forward them to others that might enjoy reading travel stories, stories about people and culture, cycling, environmental issues, America.

Leave comments on the posts. We love to read them, they keep us going. Small notes from friends and strangers are huge boosts for our confidence and can help us through rough and difficult times.

Just think of this website as a free interactive travel magazine subscription. If you enjoy reading our stories and seeing our photos, you can thank us by donating some money using the form on the right side of every post and page, using PayPal or credit card. Every small amount is welcome, just think what you would spend on a magazine or book.

Check out the Google ads if there is something interesting for you (do not click them all just to help, see notes above).

Link to our websites or specific reports or photos from your own website or blog. Add us to Stumble Upon, ReddIt, Digg etc. get the word out that it is possible to travel by bicycle!

We are now several days on the road and have some time to write some proper reports. Frankly I am amazed I can type this, as I was sure that the constant bumping of our bikes and bags over the very rough roads would have destroyed Lenny (Our Lenovo X300 laptop), but surprisingly it still works as always, long live the solid state harddisks. If you can actually read this, then it means it has survived all 2 weeks of Dalton Highway, one of the most infamous pieces of dirt road in the world…

But let’s go back a few weeks, back to the lowlands and share our journey with you in words and images.

I am not sure if it is me (us) or is there just no way to properly prepare for a 2.5 year trip? We had been planning since a year ago and still many things had to be done in literally the last minute. At least you can get a lot more done if you use the 8 hours we normally waste on sleeping on working and preparing

As our house was already rented out, we moved back and forth between my mom’s house and Romke & Anouks place. R&A have two wonderful kids and they were happy to assist in sorting out all the gear we received from our wonderful sponsors, this is Kira, checking out the Ortlieb and Carrera gear that Jacobsons sent us.

and this is how part of their livingroom looked during their vacation:

Thanks again, Romke & Anouk & Kira & Jelte, we would not have made it without you.

We took the train up North to say goodbye to my Mother and Sister. By the way, in The Netherlands we have a great railway system, which will get you everywhere in no time. of course people like to complain about the train service, but i think it is perfect, there are even a lot of special spaces for bicycles in every carriage, very useful to do some last minute fine-tuning:

My Mum helped us with some last things and we even managed to make a mess in her place. She was very sad; even though I have been away for many months at a time in the past, this will be the longest period away so far.

My sister lives close and we also visited her to say goodbye. We had a nice dinner at a organic Indonesian restaurant in Assen, with great food and service and we could even park our bikes inside. As with my mom, she was in tears when we waved goodbye from the train, but again somehow I was not sad, maybe we will see each other soon again.

Ivana had already said goodbye to her family in March, when she came to Amsterdam. But thanks to the wonders of skype and broadband Internet, she had been talking/videoconferencing with her mum and sister (that almost have the same names as mine) every evening for hours, while packing and sorting stuff.

Going on all these adventures is selfish in a way as we are worrying our friends and family. But I think we can repay their concerns and affection with stories and images and knowledge that we are following our hearts.

ps: we also had a nice going away slash b-day party, but i will post the images in a separate post once we find the images again

Mario Wolff is also someone who has turned his passion into his living. A climber by heart, he is nw the importer and dirtibutor for Vertical clothing as well as Stic-it (for rockclimbing) as well as Tear Aid, clever stuff that you can use to fix everything.

His main focus is on the wonderful Vertical clothing. Vertical (French website, Dutch website) uses the innovative material MP+. More breathable than Gore-Tex, stronger and more durable. The jackets he gave us are fully waterproof and weigh only 200grams!

Mario went throug a lot of trouble to make sure our new gear arrived on time, many thanks for your help Mario!

The gear is very nice and though primarily focused on climbers, very useful for cyclist and other travellers and adventurers as it is durable, functional but light and pretty as well

Gecko Climbing is a small importer of quality brands like Boreal and Carinthia and smaller specialized brands like Trango Bleastone, Elliot ST, Acun & beta stick as well as their own brand Gecko Climbing. Owner Jort veen is a great guy, a strong climber himself and very enthusiastic. He has gone out of his way to make sure all our gear arrived ok and on time, thanks Jort!

Their mission is to make climbing more safe and pleasant for both individual climbers as well as professionals who work on height like arborists. To reach this goal Gecko climbing has the policy to deliver their customers with all the information and service they need.

Boreal (www.e-boreal.com) has given us great discount on our boots, gracias Jesus!

Carinthia (www.carinthia-bags.com) has supplied us with specially made sleeping bags as well as great light downjackets that we have been using a lot. Owner Wolfgang personally has altered some models to make sure we will not be too cold! Vielen dank, Wolfgang!

SLEEPING BAGS

The first criterion for buying a sleeping bag is of cause the warmth performance, based on this we listed up our products on this side in comfort areas .

The Products are divide into synthetics or downy fillings . You can follow our sides by the quick menu on top or entering the detailed information over the following tables. Our actual catalogue could be downloaded as a PDF under downloads.

Please take notice of our hints for the use of sleeping bags and to the key for our products explanations

Important criterions for buying a sleeping bag

As there are warmth performance, packing size and weight as the three arguments mostly important for your decision. So they should be thought about thoroughly. The next argument that occurs is the filling. Should it be synthetic or downy.

For that decision there is an important link between the purpose of use and the chosen material.For helping you making the right decision for the CARINTHIA product that suits you most we offer a lot of different tools on this side to compare our wide range of products.

Whether in the far north of Canada, the South Pole, the peaks of the Himalayas, the African desert or the Austrian Alps, having the right sleeping bag makes a big difference to the success of an expedition.

We are aware of the responsibility we bear.Our company, CARINTHIA, has been manufacturing synthetic and down fillings for more than 40 years.

We are producing in Europe!

Twenty years ago we started developing and producing high-performance sleeping bags. State-of-the-art production plant and decades of experience ensure our high quality standards – something that can not be guaranteed in distant, overseas factories. We took the decision therefore to keep our manufacturing facilities in Europe.

Trust in our products

Our close contacts with numerous experienced mountaineers, and our continuous dialogue with participants at expeditions of our partners DAV Summit Club, Hauser exkursionen international and others, helps us to design ultra-practical products. We keep improving our new product range until they meet exactly all the requirements of our outdoor experts. Only then we allow our products to be included into our sales
range. Of course cold cell tests are part of the procedure.We use only the best materials available.

CARINTHIA outdoor wear

In this catalogue again we proudly present our newest developments for our new product range CARINTHIA OUTDOOR WEAR and other current products.

SLEEPING BAGS AND OUTDOOR WEAR

Since many years CARINTHIA fulfil every aspect in thermo isolation.World wide many (thousands
of)people trust in our sleeping bags,-outdoor wear- and tent-technology, whether in private or on an official mission.

40 years of experience in manufacturing synthetic- and downy fillings guaranties highest
standarts. With our new internet side we offer you a wide range of service and information.

Nowadays a cycle trip is so much more than just a way to go from A-B. We make photos, maintain blogs, and film. All this digital material can get lost, broken or stolen, the nightmare of a photographer/filmer & writer like me.

I do have a small external harddrive, but likely it will get broken or stolen together with the gear it was trying to back-up. If you have sensitive data (who hasn’t?) the first thing to do is to download security software to Lock folders in Windows Vista, XP, NT, ME and 98 – this will prevent stolen data/drives being abused.

But then you still lost it yourself, so you will also need an additional back-up. After searching (and testing a few that did not work very well) I found the easiest and best online back-up solution.

Michael Fisher from ElephantDrive was intrigued with our trip and offered me a free Elephant drive for a year. I love how the system works and how you can just use your online drive as if it was part of your laptop.

I have no problem making some more promotion for it as it is a great solution for everybody and I definitely think that ElephanDrive is the best there is.

ElephantDrive is a simple, secure, and powerful online backup and storage service. Here is how it works:

First – Create an Account

Second – Download the ElephantDesktop

Once you’ve created your account, download the easy-to-install
ElephantDesktop.

Third – Access and Manage Your Data

You can use the ElephantDesktop to quickly, easily, and securely upload or backup your files and folders.

Your uploaded files are protected by strong encryption and stored in hardened, professionally managed datacenters with state of the art security and environmental protections. You can access your files from
anywhere in the world, at anytime.

Universal accessEvery file you store at ElephantDrive is available in real time, all
the time. Unlike other services that archive your data away, you
can get anything you need immediately!

1GB Free storage. No credit cards, no monthly payment, no expiration.

Unlimited Online Backup and Storage

For Home UsersUnlimited online storage for your photos, music, video, documents, and all other valuable files you have! Pre-made categories and our simple wizard make sure that all your important data gets automatically backed up!

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English

The Holiday biker

Cycling is fun!

An increasing amount of people choose a sportive holiday under one’s own power. With the wind blowing trough your hair, enjoying the beauty surrounding you, you feel free as a bird on your bicycle. De Vakantiefietser helps you along with enthusiastic stories, a well fitted bike, practical equipment, advice and expertise.

Bicycle trekking equipment

From waterproof panniers to cycle maps, from gasoline burner to
down sleeping bags, from unbreakable carrier racks to self-inflating
mattresses and from breathable rain jackets to puncture proof tires, we
have everything in the house.
What to think of a headlight, waterproof socks, compact tool, bicycle
trailer, synthetic towels, luggage net, water bag, first aid set,
universal bath stop or camera stand for on your handlebar.

Holiday bicycles

What
kind of bicycle is suitable for you not only depends on the duration of your trip and the destination, but also on your budget. It makes quite a difference whether you are going on a world trip, or go on bike holiday to France.
That is why we have bicycles in different qualities and price
categories: idworx, Koga Miyata, Koga Signature, Santos, Snel, Van Nicholas and VSF. Besides that we are the specialist in The Netherlands for a trekking bike with Rohloff speed hub.
Delivery for a new bike is from one to eight weeks.

Cycle guides, maps and travels

In our book cupboards are hundreds of bicycle guides. Apart from Dutch guides, we also have German and English guides and travel stories. Our maps are especially selected for cyclists. So you will not leave our shop with a walking or car map.
On our coffee table there are (next to the ‘negerzoenen’) brochures of a number of cycle travel companies. We do not sell travels, but we can help you finding the most suitable travel organisation for you.

About Eric Schuijt

Eric Schuijt cycled through more than eighty countries and wrote four books about these travels.
In his shop, De Vakantiefietser, you can find your trekking bike, as
well as your complete bike trekking equipment and travels. All the
employees at De Vakantiefieter cycled all over the world. Eric and
his staff can serve you with their expertise because of many years of
experience with bike trekking.

Friend-of-Eric-card

You don’t want back and neck pains or painful wrists? On our
measuring frame we find your ideal frame size and the most convenient
adjustment of your bicycle. If you’re busy during our opening
hours, we can also serve you at a time that suits you better.
Every customer who buys a bicycle receives the Friend-of-Eric-card.
This entitles you to a discount on your travel equipment. And if you
have problems with your bicycle while you are on holiday, we will send
you the necessary parts.

Activities

Almost every Tuesday-evening we organise an activity in the shop like:

Bicycle maintenance for when you’re on the way;

Basic course bicycle maintenance;

Workshop ‘preparations for a bicycle holiday’;

Workshop ‘preparations for a long bicycle trip’;

Readings about bicycle trekking from enthusiastic bicycle travellers

On this website

you can find information on

Advise about equipment, bicycles and bicycle clothing,

Tips for buying a trekking bicycle,

Packing list,

Agenda of activities,

Travel impressions,

Books and maps via internet,

Links to websites which are interesting for trekking cyclists.

Everything is written in Dutch, but with the help of Babelfish, you can at least understand what I have written.

Address

De Vakantiefietser is located in the centre and is not far from the Central Station.

You need a real adventurer to tell how food tastes in extreme conditions like high altitude, freezing temperatures, blizzards or all mixed together. Hans van der Meulen is more than just a climber, he scaled Mount Everest & K2, Cho Oyu and Shishapangma as well as many other high peaks. He also went to the North and South Pole (both the long way).

He started his company AdventureFood as there was no tasteful freezedried food available for climbers and other adventurers. He designed new menus, mixes them all himself in his in-house factory and ships them all over Europe. I tested his food on Everest and many other mountains myself and can’t get enough of his easy to prepare but still very tasty meals.

Especially in Northern Alaska his meals are useful as there are no trees there to hang our food in. So we need sealed and relatvely odourless food, while still being tasty and plentoful. Adventurefood is the solution

Adventure Food, powered by Hans van der Meulen

It was my interest in nutrition and my experience of expeditions
which prompted me to put my heart and soul into Adventure Food. I learned the hard way, from first hand experience, about nutritional requirements in such extreme conditions, and I make constant use of this knowledge to make the range the best it can possibly be. You dont realise how important nutrition is until you find yourself on a 70-day trek to the North Pole (the first Dutch expedition to the North Pole,
in 1997) or climbing an 8000m-high mountain (the first Dutch person to climb Mount Everest without additional oxygen, in 2002). I realise like no other that nutritional value, taste and ease of use are crucial to
completing such challenges. And now everyday sportsmen and women can profit from this knowledge too by choosing Adventure Food! For more information about my expeditions go to:

Varied menu

Crunchy Muesli or a warm breakfast with cereals, fruit and nuts?
Would you like for lunch a substantial omelet? How about Walnut Pasta for dinner, or perhaps something more exotic like Rice Satay? For dessert, do you prefer Chocolate mousse?
With Adventure Food you will be able to create a different menu every day. Outdoor adventuring with the benefits of great cuisine!

Diets

Adventure Food also provides a selection of vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free dishes. After indicating your diet preferences an adapted menu will be shown.

Outdoordacht/Technolyt:Peter Wayper is the boss of Outdoordacht. The name is a Dutch play on words: “Outdoor” is clear, but “doordacht” means: well thought through. And so it is. All the gear Peter imports and sells is smart and useful. From famous brands like Sea to Summit to newer products like Steripen and Dobermann.
Peter is an avid cyclist himself and couldn’t wait to leave his desk to take a spin on our Santos bikes. He has cycled in many countries and know what cyclists need and want.

One of the most interesting items he imports are Solar Supra solar panels: foldable solarpanels, that come with a smart battery. You can use the solarpanel directly (it comes with a range of adapters and plugs), or you can charge the battery first and then take power off it later, offering a voltage switcher, to use it with many appliances.
This is not only an excellent way to conserve solar energy, but offer many new possibilities: even with a relatively small solar panel, we can generate enough power to charge our laptop, batteries for the water purifier, headlamps, bike light, but also all cameras and mp3 player. It s a great feeling to be able to use the solar power and to be independent from any other power source for a long time.

One other interesting product Peter supplied us with is the Steripen. We used to drag large water filters and pumps with us or all kinds of bad-tasting drops to purify the water of viruses & bacteria. Now we just take water from any source (we tested tab water everywhere in Zanzibar and Tanzania), press a button, stick the pen in and stir for 2 minutes. Ready to drink immediately!

A great weight saver and as the batteries are rechargeable, we can use it for a long time. One charge will purify about 100 liters/26 gallons and the light will last for about 4000 liters/1000 gallons.

When we first contacted Robbert Rutgrink from Santos (www.santosbikes.com), we had not much idea about his background. We only knew that Santos bikes were loved and praised by many Dutch and international biketravellers. He is a simply a bike lover and his passion is to design and build the best bikes available. He supplies mountainbikes to the police, builds all kinds of racing, road and city bikes, tandembikes and most importantly: travel bikes.
Though his sponsor budget was exhausted and he had no plans for supplying any new bikes, he became enthusiastic and in the end supplied us with the best bike a traveler can wish for: the Santos Travelmaster.

The Santos Travelmaster series has won several European contests for best travel bike. They are strong, functional and beautiful, a practical work of art. They come in two materials (Aluminium and CroMo /steel) and in two basic versions: with 26” weels (mountainbike size) and 28” wheels (citybike size).

But those are only the basic configurations, using the online configuration tool on www.santosbikes.com, you can create your own perfect bike, including important aspects like gears and frame size, but also smaller details like handlebars, pump and stand. You can even choose from 24 different frame colours, to personalize your bike completely. While using, you can see the results in price and weight for every component and total.

We used the tool and together with the expert advice of Robbert we designed our dreambikes. The bikes are all build in the Netherlands, by a team of very skillful people. A sSantos bike demands to be ridden, the only dust they will gather is on desert roads…

So here they are: Kowalski & Greeny!

Thank you Robert and all the team at Santos bikes. We are going to test the bikes properly, but we already love them like family

I am currently testing it on our ride from Alaska to Argentina. The bike is great, no problems whatsoever. My girlfriend, riding the same bike, and me were in a big Vancouver bikeshop after finishing the first 5000km, including about 800-1000km unpaved (Dalton Highway, Denali Highway and Cassiar Highway).

‘What do we need for our bikes?’ we asked eachother, looking hungry at all the nice gear and tools.

‘Ehhhh?’

In the end we realized we have to change the oil (recommended after 5000km) and as we already had the spare Rohloff oil with us, we bought nothing.

And once you have tried the Rohloff, you will never want to go back

(tripreports can be found on http://WorldOnABike.com).”

Update:

Right now James Bowthorpe will try to beat the record on his round-the-world bicycle trip. He is using a Santo Travelmaster with Beltdrive.

We have rented out our house for the next few years and are effectively homeless. A great feeling

Now we are talking with our gear sponsors to see what they can arrange. It is great to see the faith they have in us and our trip and the wonderful support they are giving. Soon we will talk about them some more and we will set up the special sponsor pages.

For now we are enjoying testing out our new Santos bikes. Wonderful machines. Mine will be called Kowalski, but Ivana’s green yak still needs a name, any suggestions?

More later, now we are packing for a short Istanbul trip, when we are coming back in a few days, we are supposed to either see a lot better or see nothing at all. Laser surgery, here we come!